This invention relates generally to a wrap-around carrier for bottled objects such as beer or the like and more particularly to a new and novel returnable wrap-around carrier which may be used to carry full bottles from the store to the consumer and may then be reused to carry empty bottles from the consumer to the store. The carrier contains novel means designed into the package for accomplishing this purpose.
In the packaging of beer bottles or the like, it is desirable to package the bottles in a carrier which completely encloses the bottles in order to prevent the sun's rays from having a deteriorating effect on the contents of the bottle as well as providing means for retaining the bottles within the carrier while the carrier is being transported from the store to the consumer's home. It is taught by the prior art devices that such completely enclosed carriers having a generally elongated hole or pair of holes formed in the top panel may be produced, these holes serving as the carrying handle for the package.
In recent years the no-deposit beer bottle has become extremely popular with the purchaser who simply threw away the empty beer bottle as well as the empty package in which the bottles were packed whenever he was finished using both. However, recent trends in marketing today, due .[.primary.]. .Iadd.primarily .Iaddend.to ecology considerations, tend to indicate that the no-deposit beer bottle will someday become obsolete, and that the bottlers will return to the two-way deposit bottle which was quite prominent in the marketplace in the early 1960s.
During that time when the returnable beer bottle was being used, attempts were made to provide a carrier such as beforementioned with the carrier having a handle which was torn from the top panel of the carrier and which could be used to transport the carrier and empty bottles back to the store for return of the deposit. Two types of carrier of this design are shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,061,141, issued Oct. 30, 1962, to R. A. Cote, and the U.S. Design Pat. No. 188,395, issued July 12, 1960, to Costis J. Paps. Both of these carriers are somewhat similar in design of the handle for the carrier which is torn out of the top panel of the carrier and may be used for transporting the carrier with the empty bottles back to the store. It should become obvious after seeing these two carriers that problems were encountered in reinserting the empty bottles back into the carrier since, more often than not, portions of the top panel of the carrier had to be destroyed in order to get the full bottles out of the package. In addition, if the top panels were not destroyed, it was very difficult to reinsert the empty bottles into the container since they originally were placed in the container with the sides and top panels being formed around the bottles.